Students are brought across Coral Springs Drive from the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School. Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images

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Students are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

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A young woman who just walked out from the direction of the high school, who refused to give her name, gets a hug as she reaches the safe zone under the overpass at Coral Springs Drive.Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images

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Students are evacuated by police out of Stoneman Douglas High School. Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images

On Feb. 14, 2018, at 2:19 p.m., 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., with a backpack and a duffel bag full of loaded magazines. As he got out of his Uber, he pulled out a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, and opened fire.

Police say that Cruz told them he just "began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds."

After leaving the school, Cruz walked to a local Walmart, and then to a Subway, where he bought himself a drink. He was arrested walking down the street an hour and 22 minutes after opening fire at the high school.

“He looked like a typical high school student, and for a quick moment I thought, could this be the person who I need to stop?” said Officer Michael Leonard.

Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Investigators discovered that the semiautomatic rifle used in the attack was purchased legally in February of 2017, and noted that in Florida, an AR-15 is easier to purchase than a handgun. The F.B.I also admitted that they had received a tip about Cruz last year after a suspicious comment was made on a YouTube channel, though they were unable to identify him definitively.

A vigil was held for the victims of the shooting on February 15, during which hundreds of people turned out to show their support. The football team also gathered separately, to mourn the loss of their coach and their athletic director, two victims of the shooting.

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Hgh School has become one of the top ten deadliest school shootings in United States history, coming in at number eight.

Families of the victims of the Parkland shooting, as well as other mass shootings, are using the event to highlight the growing need for gun control in the U.S.

In the wake of the massacre, President Trump tweeted that the gunman was "mentally disturbed" and that those who knew him should have reported him to the authorities. He then held a press conference and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, saying that the country needs to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health." He made no mention of guns or gun control.